israel is our main ally in the middle east. israel has an absolute right to defend itself. all of us republicans and democrats that stand with the president in supporting israel and, quite frankly, i'm not the military expert, i was a spec 5 in the army, that's as far as i got, but having said that, israel should do whatever it has to to defend itself. the president will work diplomatic channels and i'm not in a position nor do i want to second-guess what israel should do. israel has to determine what it wants to do to preserve its security. >> senator levin, president obama has been in touch with both sides. what do you think of the response by the egyptians? >> it's pretty weak so far from what i can tell. the egyptians have a real interest here in the region not exploding, in the peace agreement continuing to be abided by by them, the agreement that they have with israel, but i think that they're going to have to take some very serious steps diplomatically to make it clear to hamas that they're going to lose support in the arab world if they continue these rocket attacks